President's column
Here is the value proposition: Value beyond calculation.
How much did you pay for dinner the last time you went to a nice restaurant? What’s it cost to fill the petrol tank in your vehicle? How much do you spend in a month at a brand name coffee joint, which I will call Fivebucks?
OK, let’s think about it. How many visits a week do you make to Fivebucks? It’s the place that makes the lattes and nice drinks close to the office, and maybe even a nice Americano or a chai on a weekend morning. In any given month, I would say the average member splurges on about 20 of these (I’m probably low). And what do you get out of that experience—probably weight gain, increased pulse rate, and your contribution to the growing landfills all over the globe (unless you actually recycle the whole container or use your own). Although, I’m sure it tasted good.
For about the same amount of money, you can pay your annual membership dues for SPE, and have no weight gain, an occasional increase in heart rate due to a healthy technical discussion, and actually help to solve the problem of methane gas from landfills (and other methane and hydrocarbon production issues). In addition, you can ensure that you are part of the greatest society on the planet—one that does a stellar job of engaging, stimulating, and educating our members in local meetings, work-shops, conferences, webinars and a host of other activities. All that, plus you pay 65% less for quality technical papers downloaded from OnePetro.
I think I’ve made my point.
I do have a great deal of fun occasionally helping SPE staff in the membership booth at our events across the globe. They are bound by a number of rules and protocols of politeness, but I can’t really be fired, so I can ask whatever I want of the enquiring prospective or lapsed member. There is a bit of shock factor when the guy behind the booth asks how much their last dinner bill was, or how much a hotel room cost for that weekend away, or what’s the cost of a fill-up at the pump. Pretty hard to continue the line of reasoning that SPE membership costs too much.
